---
title: Great Hammerhead (Sphyrna mokarran)
scientific_name: Sphyrna mokarran
common_name: Great Hammerhead
taxon: Hammerhead sharks
conservation_status: DD - Data Deficient
published: 2024-11-03T23:29:33.206Z
updated: 2026-08-11T19:59:06.798Z
tags: Great Hammerhead, Sphyrna mokarran, Hammerhead sharks, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/sharks/hammerhead-sharks/great-hammerhead
---

# Great Hammerhead (*Sphyrna mokarran*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Hammerhead sharks (*Sphyrnidae*)
- **Size:** 3.5 - 6.2 m
- **Weight:** 230 - 449.5 Kg
- **Depth:** 1-300 m
- **Diet:** Carnivore
- **Activity:** Cathemeral
- **Rarity:** Rare
- **Habitat:** Drop-offs, offshore reefs and open water over sand
- **Reproduction:** Live-bearer
- **Hazard:** Dangerous
- **CITES:** Appendix II
- **Conservation status:** DD - Data Deficient

## How to recognise it

- head with a nearly straight front edge, no central notch
- first dorsal fin very tall, narrow and sickle-shaped
- often swims rolled onto its side
- the largest hammerhead, to 6 m

The largest hammerhead, averaging 3.5 m (11.5 ft) and reaching 6 m (20 ft), separated from its smaller relatives by a head with a nearly straight front edge and a first dorsal fin that is absurdly tall, narrow and sickle-shaped. A large one in open water is among the most imposing animals a diver can meet.

The head is a tool for one job in particular. Stingrays bury themselves and defend with a barbed spine; this shark finds them by their electrical signature, pins them to the bottom with the flat of its head, and pivots to bite the wings off while the ray is held down. Great hammerheads are regularly found with ray barbs embedded in the head and jaws, apparently without ill effect.

It also swims on its side. Tracking work found these sharks rolled 50 to 90 degrees for most of their travel time, using that oversized dorsal fin as a lifting surface the way the pectoral fins would otherwise be used, which cuts the energy cost of covering distance by around ten percent. For an animal this size, that is a lot of tuna it does not have to catch.

Litters run to 50 pups, which is exceptional for a shark, and none of it is enough. Great hammerheads have among the highest at-vessel mortality of any shark - most die on the line before they are even landed - and the fins are the most valuable in the trade. The species is Critically Endangered.

## Also known as

- **English:** great hammerhead, Squat-headed Hammerhead Shark, great hammerhead shark
- **Arabic:** القرش أبو مطرقة الكبير, قرش أبو مطرقة العظيم, قرش رأس المطرقة العظيم
- **French:** Grand requin marteau, Grand requin-marteau, Marieau Millet
- **Italian:** Grande squalo martello, Squalo martello maggiore
- **German:** großer Hammerhai
- **Spanish:** cornuda gigante, Pez martillo gigante, tiburón martillo gigante, cornuda de ley
- **Turkish:** dev çekiçbaş
- **Portuguese:** Cambeva, Cornuda-gigante, Tubarão-martelo-gigante
- **Dutch:** Grote hamerhaai
- **Polish:** Glowomlot olbrzymi, głowomłot olbrzymi
- **Czech:** Kladivoun velký
- **Japanese:** ヒラシュモクザメ, Hira-shumokuzame, Hirashumokuzame
- **Chinese:** 八鰭丫髻鮫, 無溝丫髻鯊, 無溝雙髻鯊
- **Russian:** акула-молот гигантская, Гигантская акула-молот
- **AF:** Groot Hamerkop
- **DA:** Stor hammerhaj
- **FI:** Isovasarahai
- **FIJ:** mataidaliga
- **HU:** nagy pörölycápa
- **JAV:** Hiu caping
- **LT:** didysis kūjaryklis
- **MLT:** Kurazza
- **MSA:** Yu mata jauh, Yu sanggul lintang, Kad suar
- **SL:** velika kladvenica
- **TH:** ปลาฉลามหัวค้อนใหญ่

## Scientific synonyms

- *Sphyrna ligo* Fraser-Brunner, 1950
- *Sphyrna mokorran* Rüppell, 1837
- *Sphyrna mukaran* (Rüppell, 1837)
- *Zygaena dissimilis* Murray, 1887
- *Zygaena mokarran* Rüppell, 1837

## Range

Djibouti, Eritrea, Federal Republic of Somalia, Gulf of Mexico, Indian Ocean, Kenya, Madagascar, Mediterranean Sea - Eastern Basin, Mozambique, North Atlantic Ocean, Red Sea, Seychelles, South Africa, Tanzania, Western Indian Ocean

---

*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/sharks/hammerhead-sharks/great-hammerhead)*
*Updated: August 11, 2026*